There is no lack of containers which are capable of receiving and storing a wide variety of dangerous articles and dangerous liquid and fungible materials. As the number and variety suggests, many materials and circumstances require special container designs.
One special circumstance occurs in hospitals, clinics and medical laboratories. In that environment, it is required to dispose of suture needles, razor blades, disposable razors and other cutting implements, syringe needles, and a variety of fungibles (powders and the like) and liquids such as anti-neoplastics. They must be rendered harmless in most cases by incineration or encapsulation in the collapsed container by autoclaving. Because the container is destroyed and often must be destroyed when filled to only a fraction of its capacity, the cost must be minimal.
The logistics problem in hospitals and clinics is immense. In the large, full service, acute hospital, thousands of special purpose items are required to be stocked and dispensed, and those that are required for patient treatment must be give first priority.
In the smaller, specialized medical service units, the amount of facilities and resources devoted to hazardous waste disposal is minimal. The result has been economic pressure for an all purpose disposal system for the waste that is generated during the conduct of medical procedures.
However, the primary demand comes from the physicians and nurses. Experience demonstrates the discipline exhibited by physicians and nurses and aides in the treatment of patients does not extend to disposal of the refuse of the treatment. Unless the means is as available and as easy and convenient as any other means of disposal, the safe, prescribed disposal system will often not be employed. The need is not limited to a disposal system that is effective and safe. Cost and convenience are equally important factors.
The currently available containers are fitted with covers that are slit across the center, most often with two slits at right angles to form four flaps. The cover material is selected to be resilient but stiff enough to retain the flaps in substantially the same plane, whereby the container is substantially completely closed. The flaps are made to yield to permit insertion of articles, but the points of the flaps are made stiff and sharp enough to discourage any attempt, by drug users and the like, to retrieve syringes and syringe needles. The result, however, is that one who attempts to dispose of an article, and must push it through the flaps, risks having his fingers jabbed by the flap points. That is enough to discourage use, and, of course, such a design does not permit safe disposal of liquids.